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Tapeworms: Are They An "Urgent Care" Kind Of Problem?

Most people could go through most of their lives never knowing that their intestines harbor the nasty parasite known as the tapeworm. It is not until you begin experiencing some symptoms, or the tapeworm has grown so long that its tail end begins exiting your anus, that you even realize that you have one. If you do experience pain, anemia, extensive weight loss, diarrhea with blood in it, or white segments of this flattened parasite showing up in your stools, it is urgent that you see a doctor. However, is your situation urgent care-urgent, or emergency room urgent? Here is how to tell.

The Worm Is Exiting Your Anus Is an Emergency Room Issue

A tapeworm that has grown too long for its host's intestines may attempt to let go and "swim upstream" for a new spot to latch on. It is attempting to fit the whole of its body and tail end into the host's colon by moving its head up the twists of intestines to latch on closer to the stomach. Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for the parasite, your muscular intestines will refuse to allow this to happen. As a result, the worm will be pushed further down the intestinal tract.

Unless it reattaches its head and fangs into the wall of your intestine, it will be pushed out your anus. The tail end will begin making its exit. If you are already in the urgent care office for the pain you feel or the other symptoms you experience, the doctor in the clinic will have to guide the worm out very slowly and very carefully. If the worm's tail breaks off, the tapeworm will just regenerate the lost segments. (Additionally, the tail section will regrow a new head--eww.) Otherwise, you should definitely go to an emergency room for a full removal and destruction of the parasite.

An X-ray at the Urgent Care Clinic Reveals the Parasite's Presence

If, during the course of an x-ray at an urgent care clinic, the doctor discovers that you are an unwitting host to a tapeworm, there are medications which can kill and destroy the worm, its larvae, and the eggs. That is good news for you. You will not have to go to the emergency room to remove it, nor will the symptoms that brought you into the clinic bother you much longer. Be sure to take ALL of the medication and take it as prescribed. Otherwise, the tapeworm will just reproduce and you are back to square one.